HOLLY CULP
Opinions Editor

Quite frankly, I feel downright sorry for U.S. President Barack Obama.

He had a massive presidential campaign that moved America into voting for him and was given two wars and an economic disaster to deal with, all the while fighting accusations that he was a communist Muslim Nazi (which, when combined, are comically absurd).

Americans have accumulated all of these expectations for Obama and often fail to realize that he is following the legacy of a man who fucked America into an irreparable, unrecognizable state. And on Oct. 9 the international community did their part to bestow their grand expectations on Obama by awarding him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

Although I am one of those cheesy, blindly naive Obama supporters who almost considered purchasing a “Hope” poster at last year’s poster sale (and he hadn’t even won yet) I think it may be a bit too soon.

This year had 205 candidates for the prize and Barack Obama won over the likes of Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Afghanistan’s human rights activist Sima Samar and other influential figures.

Obama has been in office for less than a year. By receiving the Nobel Peace Prize he has joined the ranks of only three former U.S. presidents: Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter. Almost everyone in America is expressing the same “Wtf?” sentiment.

However, the Nobel committee admitted that they gave it to Obama in hopes it would help him achieve the things he was trying to do. This mirrors the support for Obama’s efforts for peace and nuclear disarmament on an international level that he largely fails to find in his own country.

There are a lot of people claiming that Obama has done “nothing,” possibly the same ones who heaped hefty expectations on Obama and, when they did not see immediate changes, threw a collective tantrum.

These people need to be reminded that it is infinitely easier to start a war than it is to resolve one and that America cannot be the universal cure-all for international disputes. And while I agree that the award was given earlier than necessary, I don’t think people are justified in saying that he has done nothing.

He has done what he can with an otherwise deplorable situation: economic disaster, two wars dumped onto his lap and an extremely anti-American global climate. In the short time he has been in office he has improved the global opinion of America (despite the citizens who work so hard to discredit their country) and improved relations with countries that the former Bush administration had no qualms ignoring.

My only major concern with Obama receiving the prize is that if he goes on to do notable things more deserving of a Nobel Peace Prize, will he receive it again? Or will the future great deeds that we all expect him to accomplish go unacknowledged?

Cheers to the Nobel committee and members of the global community who want to see Obama succeed. The world wants to see America change and the Nobel Peace Prize could be a way to endorse that change.

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